Sky Pirates (24 page)

“Be quiet. This is not funny,” she hissed.

She reached up and started unlacing the top of her corset. There, just inside the laces, was the secret pocket that held the small stiletto she always carried. Not even the bottom-slapping guard had dared to look down her front, she thought.

“Why, Mrs. Marsh,” Dashwood said in a low voice, which was still far too loud. “You naughty, naughty girl.”

“Please, Captain, be still,” she whispered.

“Now, that is impressive,” he said as his gaze drifted to her exposed cleavage while she pulled the blade out.

“Not even I am brave enough to bring a blade in here. Also, very impressive hiding place,” he said, nodding at her cleavage.

“Captain! Be quiet.” She gave him a little shake. “You need to sober up before we are both caught. This is not a game. I am in serious trouble here,” she whispered.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. She could feel his amusement radiating from him.

The sound of boot steps on the tiles silenced them both. Elle put her hand over the captain’s face before he could make another sound. “Be. Quiet,” she mouthed at him. To her immense relief he remained still, his arms still securely around her.

The footsteps were much closer now. She could hear the creak of leather and the jingle of buckles as her pursuer moved along. He too was trying to walk as quietly as possible.

Elle gripped her stiletto, holding it at the ready.

A dark break in the strip of light that glowed at the bottom of the velvet appeared. Moments ticked by with exaggerated slowness as they waited in silence.

Then, Salty Ben dragged the fabric away. He grinned at her. “Ha! Got you n—” he started to say, but he never managed to finish his sentence. Instead, his eyes grew wide in shock as Elle drove the stiletto into his chest.

Salty Ben gasped as the blade sank into his heart, and then he fell to the ground, dead as a doornail.

“Oh dear,” Dashwood said, looking down at the dead man, leaking blood on the carpet at their feet. “That is not good.”

Elle stared at the body, horrified at what she had just done.

“Mrs. Marsh, I would strongly recommend we leave this place,” Dashwood slurred next to her. “On account of the fact that I really don’t want to be hanged tonight.”

“Right,” Elle said as she untangled herself from his embrace. “This way,” she said, as they both took flight down the stairs, out the side door and into the alleyway.

Behind them, a woman screamed and people started shouting.

“Run!” Dashwood said next to her. The cold fright of murder and the sprint down the stairs had almost sobered him up. He grabbed Elle’s hand, dragging her along as they ran.

Behind them, a bell started tolling. Men were running through the streets, raising the alarm. There was only one rule in Tiger City and now they were about to die for breaking it.

“They’re closing the gates!” Elle said as they rounded a corner and caught sight of the entrance to the city.

“We’ll make it!” Dashwood said. They both started running faster until they were sprinting flat out. Once through those gates, they were in no-man’s-land and no one could touch them. Everything started and ended at the gates.

The mustached guard in his leather jerkin appeared before the gates, blocking their escape with his large, hairy body. He braced his legs, ready to meet them.

“Elle, when I say so, you go for the gap between his legs. You get out of here and back to the ship, do you hear me?” Dashwood said.

“Right,” she said, even though she had no intention of leaving him behind. He was her captain, after all.

A few feet before the guard, Dashwood yelled, “Now!”

Elle threw her weight to the ground and skidded on the gravel straight through the guard’s bandy legs. As she slipped through, she lifted her fist and slammed it into the man’s crotch.

Her move caught the guard completely by surprise. His eyes bulged and he doubled over in pain just in time to meet Dashwood’s right hook. The second blow finished him off and he toppled over like a fallen tree.

Elle and Dashwood slid through the gap in the gate just before it closed behind them. They kept running, because behind them a mob of angry pirates was gathering on the parapets of the city walls. Some of the men started hurling rocks down. These smashed to the ground, and Elle had to dodge them a few times before they were out of striking range. After what seemed like an eternity of running, the welcoming ladder of the
Inanna
came into view. Elle and Dashwood scampered up it and into the ship without hesitation.

“Evenin’, Captain.” Heller was waiting by the doors for them. “Everything all right?” He gave them both an inquiring look as he took in their disheveled states.

“All crew present and accounted for. You two were the last on board.” Heller chuckled. “Seems like no one was having any luck tonight. There has been much grumbling about empty pockets round here. But it looks like we can close her up.”

“Oh, thank the gods,” Dashwood gasped. “I was dreading the thought of having to leave crew behind.” He was leaning forward, with his hands on his knees, gasping and panting for breath.

“I’m sorry, sir, you were going to leave crew behind?” Heller looked even more puzzled.

“They’re after us. I had to stab him. He was after me,” Elle gasped as she stumbled into the hold and collapsed onto her knees utterly spent and winded.

“What? You stabbed someone?” Heller’s caterpillar eyebrows knitted together in consternation. “In Tiger City?”

“There’s no time to explain. Just get Atticus to take off!” Dashwood said.

Heller gave the captain a puzzled look.

“… Before that mob behind us have time to open the gates and come after us.”

“Aye, Captain.” Heller pulled at the wheel that operated the doors, and once they were closed, he sealed the hatch firmly.

“That should keep ’em out while we fire the old girl up, Captain,” he said. “Now you catch your breath while I sort out the orders. Shall I meet you on the bridge as soon as you’re ready?”

“Yes, carry on at will, Mr. Heller. Just get us out of here,” Dashwood said.

It was not unusual for ships to take off and berth in Tiger City at unsocial times of day and night. Pirates did, after all, keep unconventional hours. But the departure of the
Inanna
was an incident that was remembered in Tiger City for many years afterward.

Many sets of eyes watched the giant ship lift off and sail to the freedom of the night sky.

“She’s heading due east,” said one pirate as he stared at her receding lights.

“Aye, heading for the Orient. I heard someone say some of the crew were talking of treasure hidden in a lost city. In the jungles of Siam, of all places. Said the whole place was built of gold.”

A few pirates said “Arr” in agreement.

“There’s a redhead girl on board. The one old Geoffrey told us about. I reckon Ben sussed her and she killed him in cold blood when he went to claim his prize,” another said.

There were more mutters about the unfairness of the fight.

“I think that story about the hundred thousand pounds is true. I reckon that’s why she stabbed him,” yet another said.

“Now that’s a sweet haul, if ever I’ve seen one,” a fifth pirate added. “Just imagine. A hold full of Siamese gold and a trunk full of pounds waiting for you when you get home. The man who gets all that will be richer than the king of England himself.”

There were more nods of agreement.

“There’s a lot of jungle between here and China. More than you’ll ever imagine. I’d say that’s a perfect place for a bird as big as the
Inanna
to disappear,” a pirate named Colin said.

“A lot of jungle indeed,” old Geoffrey muttered. Someone had helped him up the stairs.

“A fine haul indeed,” someone repeated.

“The kind of treasure one could only imagine,” someone else said.

“Come, let’s get a head start before the others,” another said.

They began to walk away, nodding in agreement. “Hang on, we saw her first. We should have first dibs,” Colin said.

“No, we saw her first!”

“No, we did!”

“I say it’s every pirate for himself. Finders, keepers,” old Geoffrey declared.

By this time, more pirates had started slinking down the steps from the parapets. Not to be outdone by another,
this very quickly became a scramble to get to the ground.

And so that night, Tiger City saw almost every ship in its port take to the sky almost simultaneously. All of them in pursuit of riches. And their target, the
Inanna
and the valuable cargo she held.

FRENCH INDOCHINA

“Eastward ho!” Elle called across the bridge.

“What’s the weather doing, Mrs. Marsh?” Captain Dashwood asked. He was sitting in the captain’s chair, every bit the master of the ship this morning.

“Fair as is, Captain, but for a few banks of cloud east, northeast. The monsoons are more or less over, so she should be fine.”

“Very well, full steam ahead, Mr. Crow. Daylight’s a-burning!”

The
Inanna
creaked and she surged through the sky. Atticus pulled the signal lever so that the position on the round dial read,
Full steam ahead
. Far below in the engine room was an identical signal linked up to the one in the bridge. When Atticus adjusted the signal on the bridge, the one in the engine room responded accordingly, telling the engineers how much power was needed for the thrusters. It was a most effective and fast method of communicating across the 800-foot expanse of the ship.

Below the hulls of the
Inanna
, acre upon acre of impenetrable jungle stretched as far as the eye could see. They had been traveling at a steady speed for the better part of two weeks with no major incidents. Behind them lay the subcontinent of India, and the Bay of Bengal nestled beside the Kingdom of Siam. Before them the
seemingly limitless jungles of French Indochina stretched out in an emerald carpet of trees.

Elle felt a shiver of excitement. After their escape from Tiger City, the journey had been so uneventful that she had felt the first stirrings of boredom. All those miles were behind them now and somewhere in the jungle below was the city of Angkor. Their destination, if Dr. Bell’s notes were accurate, was almost in sight.

She glanced over at the captain. Neither of them had spoken about their encounter behind the curtain and the escape from Socotra, but since that night things had been almost cordial between them. She had even joined him for dinner along with Heller and Mr. Crow on a few occasions and they ended up laughing and talking until late.

The crew were in high spirits, and she had heard laughter coming from the mess when she came to her shift this morning. Yes, the spirit of adventure and the whisper of riches were definitely in the air. Elle allowed herself a little smile of triumph. It had not been easy to get here, but for once in her life, things were going well.

She frowned as she scanned the horizon. The puffy white cloud bank that had been resting in the distance was rapidly growing darker. In fact, the clouds were moving rapidly across the sky toward them like nothing she had ever seen before.

“Um, Captain, I think we should keep an eye on those clouds,” Elle said.

Dashwood rose from his seat and came to stand next to her at the observation window.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Elle said as she watched flashes of lightning play in the growing mass. “We are out of the monsoon season, so this sort of storm should not be happening.”

Dashwood pulled out his brass telescope and studied
the sky. Elle watched the good-natured smile fade from his expression.

“Storm riders,” he said, snapping his telescope shut.

The crew on the bridge all grew silent at the words.

“Mr. Crow, do you think you could coax a bit more speed out of the old girl?”

“Certainly can, sir,” Mr. Crow said. He too had paled in the last few moments.

“Set a course westward—back the way we came. Bring her round as fast as you can.”

“Aye, Captain.” Mr. Crow shifted the brass signal, pushing it right into the red.

Atticus and John Kipper exchanged a worried look.

“I need bearings! Now!” Dashwood snapped.

“Um, aye, Captain.” Elle scanned the compass and the charts. “Forty degrees,” she said. “Do you mind me asking—who are we running from?”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Dashwood shook his head. “I don’t have time for this.”

The
Inanna
creaked and groaned under the pressure as Mr. Crow brought the massive thruster engines about. Slowly, she started changing course, cleaving a wide arc through the sky.

“Mr. Heller, I want every hand on deck. Now,” Dashwood said.

“Aye, Captain.” Mr. Heller started winding the crank handle that sounded the alarm. The braying of the microphones echoed through the ship, causing everyone to jump to attention.

“What?” Elle said. “What did I say?” Elle asked over the noise of the alarm echoing through the decks below.

“Aeternae,” Mr. Crow said.

“I thought they were just made-up stories,” she said.

“Trust me, Mrs. Marsh. They are as real as you or me,” Dashwood said. “And judging from the size of the
storm clouds they are brewing, they have one seriously powerful electromancer on board.”

“So what do we do—just run?”

“As fast as we can. The Aeternae mainly hunt over open ground. They brew up a huge storm to confuse and incapacitate their quarry. Then, once the ship is helpless, they board it and strip down everything they can—and that includes metal, flesh, and bone.”

“There ain’t nothing more horrible than a ship that’s been picked clean by riders,” Mr. Crow said. His eyes were trained on the gauges and instrument panel before him, his shoulders tense.

“And how is running going to help?” Elle said.

“They avoid cities because cities usually have other electromancers. Other electromancers can access their storm clouds and neutralize them. Ergo, if we make it to the airspace over Bangkok, they might just abandon the hunt.”

“But Bangkok is more than a day away, Captain,” Elle said, looking up from her charts.